We're sorry, but this article is no longer available on Beliefnet. We invite you to explore the following related articles: How Jesus Wants Us to Spend Our Money Jesus Christ, Economic Protester Mainstream media have recognized a growing anarchist movement as a driving force behind the wave of youthful enthusiasm that turned Seattle, Washington, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles into festivals of resistance. Anarchy is the belief that people should not have power over others. Anarchists say society should consist of the free-willing association of people held together in mutual support-by a spirit of fellowship and humanity-rather than by force. A simple definition of anarchy, as it has played out in recent activist organizing, is "no leaders." Government isn't the only institution threatened by the rising popularity of anarchism. As a believer listening with growing nausea to the candidates outdoing each other with "God talk" to win the hearts of the faithful, I realized with some satisfaction that if anarchism would really take root, it would mean the end of Christianity as we know it--and perhaps the resurgence of Christianity as Christ's first followers knew it. I'm sure it never occurred to the counter-demonstrator in Philadelphia with the Bible and bullhorn and Repent-or-burn-in-hell T-shirt, or to the predominantly Christian convention delegates (one third of them millionaires), but at least some of the anarchists at the protests that day had found their way to the streets in the footsteps of Christ. You mean Jesus was an anarchist? "Although the concept didn't really exist at the time, one gets the impression that the ruling classes that opposed him would have loved to use that epithet against him," says Randy Oftedahl, a self-styled "Christian anarchist." ("Bomb-Throwing Bible-Thumper," his website quips.) Jay Mahan, a 22-year-old Christian anarchist, says, "I have a problem trying to ascribe any political agenda to Jesus. But yes, I would say that Jesus was a definite anarchist in some senses of the word." In his book "Anarchy and Christianity," French lay theologian Jacques Ellul argues that among the political options, anarchism is the closest to Jesus' message. Ellul, who defines anarchy first and foremost as "an absolute rejection of violence," points out that Jesus always refused power over others, stressing the freedom of the individual. --> There has been an aversion to religion in most streams of anarchist thought, which can be traced to Christianity's shameful history of violence and coercion. But there has also been a noble tradition of deeply religious anarchists, who see in Jesus the perfect example, a herald of a new social order bound by love rather than rules and force. When confronted by Pilate, Jesus replied, "My kingdom is not like this world's kingdoms." Nicholas Berdyaev, another great Russian thinker, said the "Kingdom of God" described by Jesus and the Hebrew prophets is true anarchism, for in it no one has power over another. A "weakness" some Christians see in anarchy is that it presupposes that people are fundamentally good by nature, that they don't need to be coerced into living peacefully together. But Christian anarchists believe Jesus makes us good, that his spirit living in our hearts makes us put the good of all above our own self-interest-no government or religion, with their police and their censure, can make us good. Perhaps the best-known Christian anarchist was Leo Tolstoy. Mahatma Gandhi, who described himself as "shattered" by Tolstoy's book "The Kingdom of God Is Within You," signed his letters to the Russian novelist "your faithful follower." Maureen Burn, my 94-year-old neighbor, also became an anarchist by reading Tolstoy's book. She says, "Choosing God with intensity and refusing to be embroiled in good or bad government are keys to Christian anarchism. A Christian should act like a foreign body in the state, awakening people's consciences and encouraging their will toward justice. Each one of us must preserve his inner freedom.without depending on any outside authority." Doesn't sound like the churches you know? Vernard Eller, the scholarly authority on the subject, writes in his book "Christian Anarchy" that this concept was lost when Christianity became institutionalized under Constantine but rose again in the Anabaptist movement during the Reformation. The early Christians refused to serve as soldiers, police, or judges, and even renounced private property out of love for one another. Ever since, here and there, other followers of Jesus have taken his radical lead. Today, as in Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany, people of faith again have to take their stand, either in the shelter of the ruling authorities or-like the first Christians-at complete odds with them, in the streets and jails with the people. -->